3. Add 1½ to 2 cups of birdseed to the gelatin, and mix well.
4. Pack birdseed firmly into your cookie cutters.
5. Using a straw, create hole for your ribbon to hang the ornament.
6. Place in cool place or refrigerate for several hours, or overnight, until completely dry.
7. Gently pop your birdseed ornament free from cookie cutter.
8. Thread your favorite Christmas ribbon through the hole and hang outside on a tree, pole, or hook.
9. Watch your feathered friends enjoy their Christmas gift!
Christmas Lake Pine Cone
Bird Ornaments
Materials needed:
Pine cones (opened)
Peanut butter
Birdseed (small seed is best without the large sunflower seeds)
12-inch strips of Christmas ribbon or twine
Small brush
Instructions:
1. First, the fun part: go on your own scavenger hunt for the best pine cones.
2. Gently clean off any debris from your pine cones using a small brush.
3. Cut twelve-inch strips of ribbon or twine, and loop around the top of the pine cone, underneath the first layers of petals, and tie a double knot. Then tie the two pieces of ribbon or twine together with another double knot, creating the hanger. NOTE: Be sure to do this before adding the peanut butter.
4. Using a brush (or butter knife) spread a generous amount of peanut butter over the pine cone, making sure to cover all the tips.
5. Roll your pine cone in a bowl of birdseed until completely covered.
6. Hang outside for your feathered friends to have their own Christmas feast.
Christmas Ever After
Green-Friendly Christmas Tips
I’ve found there are so many easy and affordable ways we can all have a more ecofriendly Christmas and do our part to protect and cherish our natural resources. Here are some of my favorite tips, just small things that can help make a big difference.
Use LED lights.
We all love the sparkle, but when picking lights, look for LED lights that use about 80% less energy than regular lights and can last almost ten times longer.
Put lights on a timer.
Set all your indoor and outdoor lights, including your Christmas tree lights, on a timer. This way, you can enjoy them when you want but turn them off when you’re not using them, like at night when you’re sleeping.
Green Christmas tree
For the ultimate ecofriendly Christmas tree, use a live tree that’s potted so you can re-plant your tree after Christmas, creating a wonderful memory that will last, as well.
Be mindful about your food.
During the holidays, it’s so easy to buy and make more food than you need. Purchase only the quantity you need so there’s less waste. Also, if you can purchase produce that’s grown locally, it’s great to support local farmers and businesses.
Shop online.
Let your fingers do the shopping! Shopping online saves you from driving around and using up gas.
Green-wrapping paper
Use paper made from recyclable products. Also, save any wrapping paper, bows, and ribbons that you get so you can re-use it next season.
White Elephant re-gifting
Having a white elephant gift exchange is my grandma’s favorite thing to do every Christmas. In my family, everyone brings something they’ve received in the past to “re-gift” during the white elephant exchange. This can also be something you have at home that you no longer have use for, but the idea is to “recycle” a gift.
Merry Christmas!
Meet Karen Schaler
KAREN SCHALER is a three-time Emmy Award–winning storyteller, screenwriter, author, journalist, and national TV host. Karen has written original Christmas movies for Netflix, Hallmark, and Lifetime, including the Netflix sensation A Christmas Prince, Hallmark’s Christmas Camp, and three books, Christmas Camp, Christmas Camp Wedding, and Finding Christmas, earning her the nickname “Christmas Karen” in the press. Karen has also created a real-life Christmas Camp experience for grown-ups, held around the world, where she carefully curates and hosts magical holiday activities from her movies and books. Karen’s exclusive Christmas Camps are inspired by her ongoing Travel Therapy TV segments where she features the most inspiring and life-changing places to visit, which have so far taken her to more than sixty-eight countries. From working as a national TV correspondent covering the wars in Bosnia and Afghanistan, to creating her own trademarked Travel Therapy TV and Christmas Camp brands, to writing movies and novels, Karen says she is first and foremost a storyteller who is passionate about telling stories that are uplifting and empowering, and filled with heart and hope. For more, visit www.karenschaler.com.
Say Hello to Karen
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Books by Karen Schaler
Additional Fiction Titles
Christmas Camp Wedding (Novella)
Nonfiction
Travel Therapy: Where Do You Need to Go?
Praise for Karen Schaler
“Schaler’s smart, appealing protagonists will keep readers turning the pages, and the plotting is pitch-perfect, leading to an inevitable but charming happily-ever-after.”
—Publishers Weekly
“In the past two years, Karen Schaler has written four Christmas movies and three Christmas novels, a prolific feat earning her the nickname ‘Christmas Karen.’”
—The TODAY Show on NBC
“How A Christmas Prince screenwriter Karen Schaler became a holiday publishing darling.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“A charming movie-to-book crossover that would be right at home on the Hallmark Channel and a winner for fans looking for a touching holiday read.”
—Library Journal
“For Schaler, creating these fantastical holiday stories comes naturally.”
—Money
Copyright © 2020 by Karen Schaler
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
FIRST EDITION
As a work of fiction all names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be interpreted as real. Any resemblance to real events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.
Cover design by The Killion Group, Inc
Chapter title and chapter opener © Elena Zlatomrezova/Shutterstock.com
Edited by Double Vision Editorial
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been
